Get Well Soon

Get Well Soon by Julie Halpern

EDU 541
 Due March 5, 2016
Laura A. Kenders

Tags: Young Adult Literature, Fiction, Mental Illness, Psychiatric Hospitals, Eating Disorders, Depression, Anxiety, Self-Esteem, Romance, Friendship

Halpern, Julie. Get Well Soon. New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2007. Print. 

            "I never wanted to kill myself; I just want to die some kind of quick, painless death to put me out of my misery." (19) Get Well Soon, by Julie Halpern, is a young adult novel based on the true experiences of the author in her adolescent years. The novel is staged as a series of letters in first person perspective from Anna Bloom, the protagonist, to her best friend. The novel journals Anna's 22 days spent in a psychiatric hospital as she struggles to overcome internalizing disorders such as anxiety, depression, body dysmorphic disorder, and more. 

            Anna Bloom has been skipping school. She doesn't want to get out of bed, she doesn't want to see anybody from school, and she most certainly doesn't want her classmates to know that she has irritable bowel syndrome and a social anxiety disorder. Her weight repulses her, and her looks disgust her. Anna's mother, a passive-indulgent parent, allows Anna's truancy to go on for weeks. Finally, at the behest of Anna's father, a more authoritative parent, Anna is placed in a psychiatric hospital. Her time at the hospital is divided between community activities and spending time with her pregnant roommate Sandy. All the while, she becomes close friends with Justin, a formerly suicidal patient who finds Anna just as intriguing as she finds him. Their adolescent romance blooms with a kiss, and they negotiate the social and mental turmoil of the hospital together. Ironically, in a place of extremes and mental illnesses, Anna Bloom discovers friendship, love, and ultimately, through self-actualization, her own identity. 

            Although the novel's intent is seemingly to allow young adult readers a chance to understand and empathize with mental illness, Halpern crafts Anna Bloom's character with an inappropriately jovial personality. In her letters, she mentions her anxieties frequently, but is more concerned with what boy is cutest, or how her first kiss will feel.  The subject material is mature, but the characters and their troubles act and talk like middle school aged children

           The main character acts with a level of understanding that is immature for her age. Even her roommate, who is apparently dealing with a pregnancy crisis seems to be no more developed.  The result is a strange combination that leaves the reader feeling as though the book has been "dumbed down," or even altered to make the topic  seem less serious. Anna Bloom's serious problems are resolved within a few days, by making a new friend and getting her first kiss. Although talking about mental health issues in adolescent young literature is very important, treating the subject blithely is not what should be introduced to young students. 

            In conclusion, while Get Well Soon is a good read, with some great humor, it should not be used in a classroom as an introduction to a discussion on mental health. However, the letter format helps the reader empathize with Anna, so it would be a good independent book to suggest to students who enjoy dramatic first person narratives.

Other Works by Julie Halpern:

• Toby and the Snowflakes, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004
• Get Well Soon, Feiwel & Friends, 2007
• Into the Wild Nerd Yonder, Feiwel & Friends, 2009
• Don’t Stop Now, Feiwel & Friends, 2011
• Have a Nice Day, Feiwel & Friends, 2012
• The F- It List, Feiwel & Friends, 2013
• Maternity Leave Thomas Dunne Books, 2015

Winter Girls by Laurie Halse Anderson: A Review

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson: A Review

Laura Kenders

EDR 541

2/8/2016

      "I'm not dead, but I'm not alive. I'm a wintergirl.” Wintergirls is a young adult novel about Lia, a teenager who struggles to fight for survival against anorexia, and her grief over her best friend's eating disorder caused death. This novel is a chilling expression of what it means to be affected by an eating disorder, and the depression that coincides with it. Throughout the novel, Anderson utilizes tools commonly used in young adult literature, but puts a new spin on what it means to speak from a young adult's perspective in first person. She keys us into Lia's internal screaming, her depressive self-accusations, and the overwhelming stages of grief and guilt that she faces at the death of her best friend Cassie through Erickson's stage 7 on her journey to self-actualization and independent identity.

     Wintergirls begins in the middle of the chaos. Cassie and Lia have been best friends for over ten years, but in the few months before the story begins, they have drifted apart. They promised each other that they would be the skinniest girls in school, no matter what it took. They wouldn't be "fat fat fatties," no matter what toll it took on their bodies, their minds, or their friendship. Cassie struggles with bulimia, while Lia participates in self-starvation, or anorexia nervosa. Whenever Cassie would try to escape her illness, Lia would pull her back down. 

      When Cassie's body is found dead in a motel room, Lia finds herself racked by guilt and depression. Her already severe struggle with anorexia becomes a battle for life and death, symptoms of her self-harm expressing themselves through haunting visions of Cassie, her dead best friend. She is trapped in a physical and mental battle for survival, as she struggles with depression, self-harm, anorexia, and grief. She doesn't know who she is anymore, she feels like a frozen shell of who she once was. Will she ever be more than a winter girl? Will she ever find herself again?

      Lia's struggle of self-actualization is prominent throughout the novel. She draws herself away from her parents, identifying her mother through her formal title as "Dr." The only person that keeps her grounded is her little step sister, Emma. Emma is a perfect picture of society's hypocritical attitude towards weight - encouraged to eat very little, and criticized for enjoying food. Similarly, Lia's mother was also obsessed over Lia's weight – feeding her tofu as a baby, and checking urine samples to ensure proper nutrition. It's no wonder then that Lia's journey to self-actualization begins by leaving her mother's house and living with her father, step-mother, and step-sister. Ultimately, Emma is the one who shakes her into the reality that she does need professional for her internalized disorders. Psychologically, Lia's maturity is a matches with Erickson's stage 6. She searches for intimacy with her family versus isolation from, and ultimately finds herself through her connection with her little sister, and through her a mutual friend of Cassie's. 

      In conclusion, Wintergirls is a heart wrenching novel about a young woman's journey to self-identity and recovery from anorexia. She experiences traumatic losses, and self-injures along her path to independent identity, but ultimately realizes that life is a process, and change is a journey. In the end, she begins to take the correct steps along that path. The first person perspective places the reader into a shaken state of self-hatred and self-accusations that begin on the first page, and don't really find closure on the last one. However, Wintergirl, is such an important read for teenagers, boys and girls alike, if they struggle with self-esteem, and/or disordered eating, or even just to get a good perspective on what it means to struggle with an eating disorder. Thanks to Laurie Halse Anderson, Wintergirls provides an ultimate picture window of empathy into exactly what that means, and how far one will go to escape.

        

Other young adult novels by Laurie Halse Anderson:

• Speak (1999)
• Catalyst (2002)
• Prom (2005)
• Twisted (2007)
• Fever 1793 (2000)
• Chains (2008)
• The Impossible Knife of Memory (2014)